Question

Andrew is painting a wall on the side of his house. He has a 20 foot ladder wich makes a 79 degree angle with the ground. Standing on the second to past rung of the ladder, Andrew can reach 5 feet above the point where the ladder rests against the wall. How high up the wall can Andrew paint

Answer 1

Andrew can reach a maximum of $24.6ft$ high up the wall.

The right-angled triangle formed can be solved using the $sine$ ratio. that is

$sin(72^\circ})=\dfrac{h}{20}$

where $h$ is the distance from the foot of the wall to the tip of the ladder where it rests on the wall. Substituting, and solving for $h$, we get

$0.9816=\dfrac{h}{20}\\\\h=20\times0.9816\\\\h=19.632ft$

Since Andrew can reach an extra $5ft$ above the point where the ladder rests against the wall, the maximum height Andrew can paint is

$(19.632+5)ft=24.632ft\\\\\approx24.6ft$

Another solved word problem on trigonometry can be found here: brainly.com/question/12146092